Welcome to "Stay Strong" - a site devoted to sharing and inspiring "Strength" in others and in ourselves! Strength of Spirit, Strength of Mind, Strength of Soul and Strength of Body! PLEASE pass this site onto others in need of Strength and Inspiration!

Thursday, March 30, 2017

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."

(Matthew 5:6, NIV)

Sometimes, it's easy to get wrapped up in taking care of the people around us.

You may find that you're always giving, taking care of the children, working overtime at the office, or helping that friend who is struggling. And that's all good.

But if you're not careful, you can end up feeling rundown.

That's why you have to take time every day to get filled back up.

Your first priority should be taking care of yourself and making time to get into the presence of Jesus.

Throughout scripture, we see that in God's presence, there is fullness of joy, fullness of peace, and fullness of victory.

In His presence, you're refreshed and restored.

That's why it's so important to take time every day to read your Bible and meditate on His promises.

We have to be diligent to have quiet time with Him.

Today, take time to get alone with God and just say, "God, I love You today. Thank You for my life, for my family, for the opportunities You've given me. Lord, I know every good thing comes from You."

When you live like that, with your heart connected to His, you'll be refreshed, restored and filled up for the journey of life ahead!

A Prayer for Today

"Father, thank you for filling me with Your strength. Thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus, so that I can be righteous in You. I hunger for Your truth and seek You first. Draw me to You and keep me close to You always in Jesus' name.

Monday, March 27, 2017

Below is a terrific reminder that no matter how long the night or darkness feels, dawn and light is promised all of us who believe and dawn is inevitable!

We just have to persevere in Faith and Hope and TRUST above all else and the "Shouts of Joy" will eclipse all suffering and darkness!

Stay Strong and God bless.... :)

Morning Has Broken

"At various times when I have been trudging through a prolonged rough patch, I have become quite convinced that things would never get better.

It doesn't matter that God has drawn me clear of difficulties before; it doesn't matter that God has previously lifted me out of the depths.

When emotional or circumstantial enemies surround me, I lose hope,

I feel stuck, and sometimes, I'm sorry to say, I straight-up wallow in the conviction that I'm always going to be hopeless, stuck, and beset.

While I may know intellectually that life has cycles and that change is always percolating, sometimes I don't own that knowledge emotionally or spiritually.

Today's joyful psalm verses are a wonderful antidote to our tendency to join the Sackcloth and Ashes Squad.

The psalmist doesn't deny the hostility of his enemies or the dangers of the pit.

He acknowledges that weeping and lament get the upper hand at times.

But, buoyed by an infinite trust in God, he embraces the belief that joy will eclipse all suffering, that light conquers darkness, that that love is stronger than death.

Yes, as night comes, weeping often takes a room in our houses (the concrete meaning of the Hebrew verb here is to "stay overnight, to lodge"); but in the morning, as the psalmist says with beautiful conciseness, "shouts of joy."

These Lenten days of penance and sorrow can seem endless, but God will ultimately transmute our waiting and wailing into a dance of joy, as we look hopefully towards the Easter dawn.

"O God of tears and laughter, Bestow upon me a hopeful patience as night falls and I await the morning's shouts of joy."

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

So often we hear the phrase "out of control" and it has such a negative connotation associated with it. Well below the author has a different take on the phrase and one that holds great Promise and Peace if we can just get to that critical point of Trusting and Believing!

Enjoy and Stay Strong!!

The Master Plan

The Lord brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up. The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts.

–1 SAMUEL 2:6–7

This is just one of many places where the Bible affirms that it is God alone who is in charge of history—the world's and ours.

Job, for example, says, "I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted" (Job 42:2).

The biblical writers were all on the same page when it came to believing that God is in control of all things and that nothing can happen that he doesn't first review and allow.

He's never in the position of wringing his hands in confusion; he's never surprised at what occurs on earth; he's never wondering what to do next.

Beware of any view of God that sees him as only the reactor to what people do, rather than the principal actor on the stage.

Whether life or death, success or failure, rising or falling of individuals or nations, everything is in his hands.

He takes everything into account, to the last detail, before it happens.

The rampant idea today that the Devil makes the bad things happen and God makes the good things happen is extremely bad theology.

What kind of God would that be?

It would make God and Satan approximate equals, each one in charge of a part of the world.

No, this isn't remotely what the Bible teaches about God.

God and God alone is the one who has a master plan for the ages, and he intends to stick with his plan regardless of whether we cooperate with him or not.

He allows us to exercise our wills, to serve him or oppose him, to love him or hate him, but in the end it will come out just the way he intends it to come out.

Of course, all this is not good news to those who have plans to do things their way in disregard of God's will, but it's very good news if we want to serve and obey him.

It means that whatever anyone wants to do against God or to harm us will be in vain.

Even if it appears to be successful for a season, in the end it will be for nothing.

No evil will triumph.

But everyone who serves God faithfully and joyfully can know that God's ultimate plan of the ages will be the last one standing.

We can move through this life without despair because we can refer all things to God, knowing not only that he is in total charge of everything but also that his will is good and that it's steeply tilted in our direction!

TODAY'S PRAYER

During this period of prayerful waiting, bring to God your entire view of life and ask him to reshape it according to his eternal plan. Then repeatedly lift up your need to the heavenly Father in the light of his good purpose that cannot ever fail.

Friday, March 17, 2017

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

–PHILIPPIANS 3:13–14

If you want to keep going forward, expecting the things you're praying for, waiting patiently for them, and not being brought down by all the negative things of the past, then this passage is written for you.

Try to put yourself in the mind of the apostle, who was most likely using imagery from a competitive race.

If you want to finish the race and come out victorious at the end, then you'll have to put aside everything bad that's happened along the way.

Paul doesn't mean that we can literally forget the bad, as if we should try to convince ourselves that it didn't really happen or that we can somehow block it all out of our memories or pretend it was some other way.

I think he meant only that we aren't to keep the bad in the forefront of our minds, allowing it to shape our decisions and control our lives.

He says that we are to focus our attention on the future, to keep our eyes on the finish line with such concentration that nothing else can distract us.

For example, if you're running a hurdle race, you can't afford to think about the hurdle you just hit, the pain in your leg, the person next to you who fell, or the applause, shouting, or cursing coming from the crowds.

Your mind must be totally focused on the tape at the finish line.

It's not that you're unaware of it all; it's only that you mustn't let yourself be influenced or controlled by any of it.

There's something more important that should be occupying your attention.

So it is with all the mistreatment we receive, the mistakes we've made, the slander of our names, the misperceptions, lost relationships, regrets, fraud, deception, and everything else that can come our way in this life.

If we're to move ahead successfully and keep on praying effectively, we must not let anything control our decisions or thinking so much that we are thrown off course.

Nothing can derail us in our spiritual lives more quickly than bitterness, guilt, growing hatred, resentments, continual rehearsal of that argument we had, the stupid things we've done, the abuse we received, and all the rest.

With God's help, we have to let it go.

The only healthy way that can happen is for us to refocus on the goal of glorifying God every time we're tempted to stop and go over it one more time.

TODAY'S PRAYER

Pray that God will show you if any unnecessary concentration on your past is hindering (or preventing) your need from being met.

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

I hope you can take a few moments to read it and gain from it the Peace it intends to convey!

Stay Strong and Warm! ;)

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"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."

–JOHN 14:1–3

This wonderful passage is even better than it first appears.

It has a double reference, both of which are extremely good news for us.

On the one hand, it seems to refer to the place Jesus is about to prepare for us by going to the cross—a place in the Father's house that he alone enjoyed before coming to live among us.

He had perfect fellowship with God the Father long before his incarnation as a human being, a unique place of love and intimacy he is about to share with all his followers.

In other words, by going to the cross and paying for our sins, he creates a "dwelling place" for us to enjoy right now, today, not someday in the indeterminate future.

We can have that place with the Father and in the Father's house that Jesus had and now has.

We can live where he lives, close to the Father's heart.

But it means even more.

Not only can we have that abiding place of nearness to God right now so that we can pray, "Abba Father" ("Papa" or something close to that), but we will be safely at home in the Father's house for eternity when this "preliminary life" is done.

So the benefits of Jesus' death on the cross are for right now as well as in the future; he has provided all the privileges of being in the family of God today, tomorrow, and forever.

Can it get any better than that?

Once we grasp this sure truth, it begins to squeeze out all despair, depression, darkness, and negative thinking.

The joy of this may not happen overnight (it's not magic), but it will grow real as the way gets brighter and brighter as we walk the long walk of faith.

Life teaches us this lesson:

"We can get through anything when we know what the end looks like."

Thankfully, God has given us a clear picture of what our destiny actually is, sealed with his proven promise and illustrated ahead of time by Jesus' resurrection.

TODAY'S PRAYER

Ask God to fill your heart with the joy and security of a sure destination. Then think of the nature of your need in light of God's eternal plans for you.

Monday, March 13, 2017

Isn't it wonderful to know that God promises to always lead us into victory?

That means no matter what is going on in your life today, no matter what's happening in the world around you, no matter what anybody says, you should always be thanking God because victory is always on the way!

You don't have to wait for everything to be perfect before you decide to celebrate what God is going to do in your life.

Praise is putting action behind your faith.

In the middle of adversity or a tough time, start making a list of who you're going to invite to your victory celebration.

That means if you're in the hospital, start planning what you're going to do when you get out.

If you lost some money when the stock market went down, start planning your coming-out-of-debt party.

When things don't look good in the natural, remember, we serve a supernatural God.

With God leading you into victory, you can always plan for increase.

You can plan for restoration.

You can plan for a comeback, and you can plan for victory because He is leading and guiding you in Jesus' name!

A Prayer for Today

"Father, I give You thanks and praise today for the promise of victory. Give me Your vision for the future so that I can move confidently into the abundant life You have for me in Jesus' name.

Saturday, March 11, 2017

What's so hopeful about this kind of statement in the Bible is that God's involvement with us isn't so "spiritual" and heavenly that it has no earthly good.

This is really where the rubber meets the road:

God is very present with us in our broken-heartedness, disillusionments, despair, and wounded spirits.

These painful experiences—those that go deep into our hearts and psyches and daily eat away at the center of our being—are what occupy too many of our days.

It's not just the great conflicts on the global or national level or the issues that appear on the evening news that God is concerned about—the small and the highly personal and intimate issues also attract his loving attention.

He meets us where we are, not just where we ought to be.

He wants to heal our deep hurts and bind up our hidden wounds—those not evident to anyone else—because he cares about such things and intends to do something about them.

It's in the soil of this well-grounded hope that we are able to trust and grow.

If sometimes God doesn't heal our wounds the very moment we ask him, it's not because he isn't concerned; it's because he intends to grow us through them.

That might even be the reason they were allowed to come our way in the first place.

If God is really in charge of everything all the time, then he's in charge of this as well.

And don't forget, there will come a day when such things are no longer even a memory:

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Rev. 21:4)

TODAY'S PRAYER Are there places in your heart and soul that feel so wounded that your prayer request feels out of reach because of you?

ASK God to give you his eternal perspective on your development as a person of faith.

Friday, March 10, 2017

"My son, if you can't bear its weight, just place your cross inside this room. Then open that other door and pick out any cross you wish."

The young man was filled with relief.

"Thank you Lord," he sighed, and he did what he was told.

Upon entering the other door, he saw many other crosses, some so large the tops weren't even visible.

Then he spotted a tiny cross leaning against the far wall.

"I'd like that one Lord," he whispered.

And the Lord replied,

"My son, that is the cross you just brought in."

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We often get so lost in our own trials, worries, fears and anxieties that we fail to understand that just steps away from us exists someone else whose problems absolutely dwarf our own!!

We would not in a million years trade our own cross for the weight and severity of some other people's daily battles if we took a truly objective view of our lives - and our BLESSINGS that we forget on a daily basis and take for granted!!

Pray the Lord does not put us to the test!

Do not get caught taking a minute of our day for granted!

We have no idea just how blessed we are - despite our daily storms and challenges!!

Focus on the Blessings ONLY!

As for the daily trials and worries, put them in perspective and turn them over to the Lord!

He wants them from us!!!

He wants to know that we TRUST HIM with them and that we BELIEVE that He will handle them for us!!!

Why withold this from Him?

Take them off your plate and place them at His feet!

Accept your "cross" today "with prayer and thanksgiving" and give thanks to God that you have the one you have been given - because given the chance to trade it for someone else's, I don't think we would like the other options!!

Stay Strong - God Bless!! :)

"The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus"

Thursday, March 9, 2017

Today's Gospel reading is one of my all time favorites and to me it, along with the parable of the Prodigal Son, embodies the very core element of our entire Faith.

We have this Promise - this "law" essentially - that has been given to us and is readily available to all of us with just one requirement: we must Ask for His Help!!

That is it....and for whatever reason so often we simply fail to ask...fail to seek...fail to knock.

Well, I don't know about you but it seems like a tragedy and a shame to have this generous and POWERFUL gift at our disposal, a gift that came at such a high and painful price at the Passion and Crucifixion of our Lord, for us to not even try to utilize it in our times of need and trial?

Afterall, what do we have to lose by simply Asking??

And we all should know exactly what we have to gain by now.

As Gus Lloyd puts it:

"This fierce independent streak that most of us have can be deadly in the spiritual life.

If you think you can handle the spiritual battles in which you must engage every day by yourself, you are sorely mistaken.

You are destined to fail.

If we but go to God and ASK for help, it will be given us.

But the first step is conquering our pride and asking for help.

Father, we recognize that we cannot defeat our sinfulness alone. Help us today to abandon our pride and accept the graces you offer abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen."

Stay Strong!!

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Matthew 7:7-12

Jesus said to his disciples:

"Ask and it will be given to you;

seek and you will find;

knock and the door will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Which one of you would hand his son a stone

when he asked for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asked for a fish?

If you then, who are wicked,

know how to give good gifts to your children,

how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

"One of the most consistent themes in the New Testament is the encouragement—even the command—

Not to worry!

About Anything!

It's Forbidden!!!

Anxiety has no place in the life of faith because any kind of worry is out of touch with reality.

The presence of worry indicates a low level of trust in God, and a high level of trust in God will invariably result in a reduction of worry.

Jesus really does want us to be very low on the worry scale and very high on the peace and joy scale, benefits provided only through trusting implicitly in God.

The apostle Paul reiterates the point when he says that we should "not be anxious about anything but instead simply make our requests known to God" (Phil. 4:5–6).

Sounds simple and clear enough.

But why does this seem so impossible to us, and why is trust so hard to find?

Jesus gives us the answer:

it happens ONLY when we put the kingdom of God first and seek it above anything else on earth.

When we wake up every morning and say:

"Today, Lord, with your help, I'm going to put you first and seek your perfect will in everything I do," we'll find worry slowly beginning to fade as we stare down every situation with trust in God's providence and goodwill!!!

No, it won't happen magically or overnight (nothing does), but it will happen!!!

That's the testimony of millions of believers through the centuries.

German missionary George Mueller struggled for years to feed hundreds of hungry orphans each day without a regular income, until the day came when, he said, "worry and I parted ways."

He simply discovered on the basis of his own long-term experience that God is faithful EVERY DAY and that worry not only is an enormous waste of time and energy but is also unrealistic.

It's out of place in a life of mature faith.

To be sure, it takes all of us time to get this, but in time we will!!

It's better to get there as early as possible because every day we fill up with anxiety just makes life much harder than it needs to be.

So put God and his kingdom first, and let him bring to you, AS YOU SLEEP, all the things the rest of the world works feverishly through the night trying to acquire!!!

TODAY'S PRAYER:

Go to God humbly and ask him to reveal the secret places of worry and anxiety that surround you and your need."

From "Your 100 Day Prayer " by Dr John Snyder

Stay Strong!!!!

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"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. . . . But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

Monday, March 6, 2017

"Sometimes the imagery used in the Bible tells us more than the words themselves.

The very first two verses of Genesis are a perfect example of this.

As God began to create the world we live in, the Hebrew writer portrayed the Spirit of God as "hovering over" the unformed and unruly mass, much like a mother bird fluttering over her brood.

The picture here is the very careful and loving attention God gives to his creation— protecting, shaping, and guiding its development.

In other words, there's no room for chance or randomness.

Everything is under his control.

As God's Spirit hovers, he extracts from the chaos perfect order, boundaries, and purpose.

This appears to be the job description of the Holy Spirit from day one up to this very day in our lives.

As he continually hovers over all our chaos and disorder— our pain, uncertainty of our future, betrayal, financial challenges, disorder, deceit, and fear—he brings out of them the ordered design that he wants for us and that he intended from the very beginning of the world.

If there is any short summary or basic message we can extract from the Bible's story of creation, it's this:

God is in charge!!

He's in charge of everything, all the time, and forever.

We aren't!!

What greater comfort could there be for us?

God is with us.

Let's hold on to the promise—Emmanuel, God with us.

He will rescue and save us!

TODAY'S PRAYER:

Ask the Holy Spirit to sweep into your heart and mind, to bring order, peace, and purpose into your need and request."

From "Your 100 Day Prayer" by Dr. John Snyder

Stay Strong!!!

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

DO NOT BE TERRIFIED OR DISCOURAGED, for I am with you wherever you go.

It's easy for My followers to feel frightened and pessimistic when the mainstream voices in this world speak so heavily against them.

Looking at this life through godless, biased lenses will indeed pull you down.

Christian courage is the antidote to this poisonous input, and it is nourished by the knowledge that I am ALWAYS with you.

It is crucial to remember that what you can see of reality is only a very small piece of the whole.

When Elijah was deeply discouraged, he said he was the only one who had remained faithful.

Yet there were thousands in Israel who had not bowed down to Baal.

Elijah was blinded by his isolation and his discouragement.

Similarly, Elisha's servant was terrified because he couldn't see what Elisha saw: horses and chariots of fire all around to protect them from enemy forces.

Beloved, not only am I with you, but I have unlimited resources to help you.

So look beyond the way things appear, and take courage!

From "Jesus Always " by Sarah Young

Stay Strong!

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

—JOSHUA 1:9

"[Elijah] replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too."

—1 KINGS 19:14

"And Elisha prayed, "O LORD, open his eyes so he may see." Then the LORD opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha."

—2 KINGS 6:17

"But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."

Get your STAY STRONG T-SHIRT!!

These ten great inspirational sayings about life come from diverse cultures and times. These sayings of inspiration represent the thread of enlightenment and compassion that has always run through the greatest among us, and are, to me, the best of the best.

This above all, to thine own self be true.- William Shakespeare

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.- Confucius

Happiness depends upon ourselves.- Aristotle

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.- Lao Tsu

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

All things share the same breath - the beast, the tree, the man... the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.- Chief Seattle

Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.- Rabindranath Tagore

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.- St Francis of Assisi

There are no facts, only interpretations.- Friedrich Nietzsche

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.- Albert Einstein

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.- George Bernard Shaw

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned,so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.- Joseph Campbell

The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.- Joseph Campbell

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.- Helen Keller

Life is an exciting business, and most exciting when it is lived for others.- Helen Keller

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.- Helen Keller

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance. - Anonymous

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.- Confucius

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.- Marie Curie

Life is a long lesson in humility.- James M. Barrie

Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.- William James

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.- John Lennon

No one knows what he can do until he tries.- Publilius Syrus

As we light a path for others, we naturally light our own way.- Mary Anne Radmacher

There are no facts, only interpretations.- Friedrich Nietzsche

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.- Rabindranath Tagore

To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.- Theodore H. White

Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass... It's about learning how to dance in the rain.- Vivian Green

I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for that part of me you bring out.- Roy Croft

I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the Spirit.- Kahlil Gibran

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Where there is great love there are always miracles.- Willa Cather

Lord, grant that I might not so much seek to be loved as to love.- St. Francis of Assisi